Force a Java Tooltip to Appear

Question

Given a JTextField (or any JComponent for that matter), how would one go about forcing that component\'s designated tooltip to appear, without any

Answer 1

You need to invoke the default Action to show the tooltip. For example to show a tooltip when a component gains focus you can add the following FocusListener to the component:

FocusAdapter focusAdapter = new FocusAdapter()
{
    public void focusGained(FocusEvent e)
    {
        JComponent component = (JComponent)e.getSource();
        Action toolTipAction = component.getActionMap().get("postTip");

        if (toolTipAction != null)
        {
            ActionEvent postTip = new ActionEvent(component, ActionEvent.ACTION_PERFORMED, "");
            toolTipAction.actionPerformed( postTip );
        }

    }
};

Edit:

The above code doesn't seem to work anymore. Another approach is dispatch a MouseEvent to the component:

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class PostTipSSCCE extends JPanel
{
    public PostTipSSCCE()
    {
        FocusAdapter fa = new FocusAdapter()
        {
            public void focusGained(FocusEvent e)
            {
                JComponent component = (JComponent)e.getSource();

                MouseEvent phantom = new MouseEvent(
                    component,
                    MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVED,
                    System.currentTimeMillis(),
                    0,
                    10,
                    10,
                    0,
                    false);

                ToolTipManager.sharedInstance().mouseMoved(phantom);
            }
        };

        JButton button = new JButton("Button");
        button.setToolTipText("button tool tip");
        button.addFocusListener( fa );
        add( button );

        JTextField textField = new JTextField(10);
        textField.setToolTipText("text field tool tip");
        textField.addFocusListener( fa );
        add( textField );

        JCheckBox checkBox =  new JCheckBox("CheckBox");
        checkBox.setToolTipText("checkbox tool tip");
        checkBox.addFocusListener( fa );
        add( checkBox );
    }

    private static void createAndShowUI()
    {
        JFrame frame = new JFrame("PostTipSSCCE");
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        frame.add( new JScrollPane(new PostTipSSCCE()) );
        frame.pack();
        frame.setLocationByPlatform( true );
        frame.setVisible( true );
    }

    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable()
        {
            public void run()
            {
                createAndShowUI();
            }
        });
    }
}

This approach will result in a slight delay before the tooltip is displayed as it simulated the mouse entering the component. For immediate display of the tooltip you can use pstanton's solution.